a city of mirrors

In the public eye, the success of architects is inextricably connected to the scale and number of buildings they have erected. Monumental architectures are the most obvious kind of legacy. However, in the fight against climate change and ecological devastation, theoretical plans for the future have often contributed more than immediately attainable ones. Paolo Soleri’s 1969 book, “Arcology: The City in the Image of Man”  is filled with incredibly complex plans for buildings that were never built. Despite this, Soleri significantly contributed to the world of climate change design by expanding the public consciousness, demonstrating the importance of architectural storytelling when advocating for a greener future. Climate change media is often judged by its relevance to the modern day. Yet, the transformative societal shifts that must happen in order to prevent climate disaster necessitate a lack of “practicality” when imagining climate solutions. Solari himself saw only one pat...

The Crystal Palace interior, public domain        The Great Exhibition of 1851 lasted five months and left behind a completely transformed society. Heralding several monumental shifts in design and architectural theory, The Crystal Palace [Paxton, Hyde Park, London, 1850-1851] was a new sort of exhibition space- one defined by massive scale and innovative materiality. Around half a century later, Frank Lloyd Wright would employ many of the same technologies and ideas when designing the Larkin Administration building [Wright, Larkin Administration Building, Buffalo, NY, 1904-06] Both buildings exemplify the use of architecture as a tool to standardize human behavior and productivity within the constraints of the machine. This is achieved through the introduction of mass produced building elements, as well as the development of new systems of organization and the introduction of new structural technologies that allow for open-plan, easily surveilled interiors. These co...

  Credit: Rick Guidice/NASA      One of the things that has always interested me about design history is tracing back the threads that made the modern world what it is today. There is something fascinating about reading the façade of a building and tracing back its features to a long-forgotten art movement, or listening to the story of how curb cuts came to be on the podcast 99% Invisible (https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/curb-cuts/). However, it is easy to get so lost in the historical design decisions that changed everything to realize that choices of a similar magnitude are being made every day. And one area that I believe will change the future is the design of living spaces beyond Earth.     Designing on Earth means designing buildings that fit into the patchwork quilt of the built environment. It means designing within a societal structure that has existed for tens of thousands of years. This can be beautiful- there is something poetic abou...

  © Dover Publications      All across Europe, scrolling vines and metal flowers weave across iron railings and carved doors . Art Nouveau is a movement that is often associated with a brief moment in the past. Yet, if one looks closely, is it clear that Art Nouveau continues to influence and inspire the present and future of the design world.       Originally, Art Nouveau was meant to be the style of the future. Its swirling, vining forms twined through the most forward-thinking architectural works of the time, from the Eiffel Tower cafe to the spires of La Sagrada Familia. It was like it suddenly sprouted from the pavement of the most avant-garde cities of the age. Contrary to this first impression, there was an unseen web of factors behind the popularity of Art Nouveau. Art Nouveau exterior of the Pavilion Bleu, a cafe that was located on the Eiffel Tower site for the 1900 World's Fair      Like every design movement, Art Nouv...

  I don’t remember when I first started reading buildings. In many ways, it was similar to learning to read words, a hidden language of symbols and patterns that gave me a deeper understanding of the world. It was an understanding that I craved. I had been poring over books about architecture for a while before I began to see the words I had read in them spread across the facades of apartment complexes. I began picking out patterns, staring at buildings until I puzzled out why the architect had made them that way. And then, I started writing about what I saw. Architecture is my primary career goal because I have begun to notice, over the last few years, that the built world both reflects and creates the society we live in. The library next to my friend’s house is all warm toned wood and strong horizontal lines because it reflects the Usonian influence of Frank Lloyd Wright. It was built in this way by an architect who perhaps admired the democratic values the style represented,...

     There is a question that has the power to change the world. The question is:  What status quo does this design maintain ?      The fact is, a society where certain groups are marginalized and oppressed will always result in architecture that reinforces and perpetuates these prejudices. Physical walls divide suburban blocks, separating historically Black and historically white neighborhoods. Hostile architecture forces homeless people out of wealthier areas, where they are viewed as an eyesore. Lack of bathroom access has historically been used as a tool to exclude any group deemed undesirable.       In some ways, exclusive design maintains societal power structures more effectively than laws can. Laws require verbal or written acknowledgment of their injustice. They are inherently confrontational; they say “you can’t do that” or “you don’t belong here.”       Exclusive architecture, on the other hand, says a...

     All across India, surreal staircases like MC Escher paintings recede into the depths of the earth.      When I first saw an image of a vanishing stepwell, I had no idea what I was looking at. It was a staircase out of a geometric dream, a vertical maze plunging downwards before disappearing into mirror-like water. It didn’t seem real.       Not only are Indian Stepwells real, but they were once both functional and ubiquitous , places for women to refill jugs that they would use to supply the day’s water for their families.      In the absence of aqueducts, many Indian  people relied on a central stepwell as their main water source. The stepwell was dug deep enough that it was below the water table, so the well would never run dry. The steep step-lined walls allow for overflow capacity in the case of heavy rains, preventing flooding. Instead, the water would rise to cover lower levels of stairs while remaining acc...